Цветок весенней реки, лунная ночь

Глава 3

Chen Ying asked, puzzled, "Didn't you see her with her in Black Town?"

"When I saw her in Black Town, she was wearing nothing but those clothes?"

Just then, a car approached from afar. Chen Ying hurried towards the station: "Don't overthink it, the car is here!" When she swiped her card on the bus, she realized that Ningxia hadn't followed closely behind, but had turned around and headed towards "Ningxinyuan".

"Ningxia! Ningxia!" Chen Ying called out loudly from inside the car, but her figure quickly disappeared.

Turning on the chandelier, Ningxia saw that the bedroom had been kept neat and clean by Su Yun before his death. The bed in the center of the bedroom, the bedside table next to the bed, and a small round table and chair by the window were clearly visible to her.

The bed was neatly covered with a snow-white duvet cover. The bedside table was empty except for a lamp. On the small round table sat a delicate glass vase, which had originally contained a bunch of withered lilies, but Ningxia had thrown them in the trash while tidying up. Now, only the vase and two framed photos of Su Yun remained. On the back of the chair, Su Yun's cream-colored silk nightgown was neatly folded and draped. The buzzing continued, but the source of the sound couldn't be found in the simple bedroom. She opened the wardrobe on the wall to the left of the bed.

The few clothes in the wardrobe were hung separately by season, mostly simple black and white business suits. Several sweaters were folded and neatly placed at the bottom of the wardrobe, and several delicate underwear items were folded into squares and placed in an orderly manner in the wardrobe's compartments. Ningxia closed the wardrobe with some curiosity and listened carefully to the source of the sound.

Suddenly, after about two minutes of buzzing, the beeping stopped abruptly, and the bedroom fell silent. A growing chill seeped into Ningxia's skin, and goosebumps rose on her skin. She looked at the photo framed picture of Su Yun on the small round table, who was staring at her with a melancholy gaze tinged with resentment.

Suddenly, the image of the woman in red from the portrait she had seen in Black Town flashed into Ningxia's mind. She suppressed her pounding heart, turned off the lights in the room, and quickly walked towards the door.

"Buzz buzz buzz..." The faint buzzing sound that had been just moments before suddenly intensified, increasing several times in volume and violently stimulating Ningxia's eardrums.

Suddenly, the entire room was filled with a loud, piercing buzzing sound. Ningxia covered her ears in terror, staring blankly at the strange room. In the large photograph of ancient costume above the sofa in the living room, Su Yun's melancholy eyes were fixed on Ningxia, seemingly watching her every move with cold indifference.

Ningxia involuntarily yelled and ran towards the gate. Just as she opened it, someone suddenly rushed in. Ningxia yelled again, and the person screamed back, clearly startled by Ningxia's shout.

"What are you yelling about?" A familiar, slightly reproachful voice came from Ningxia's ear.

"Chen Ying!" Ningxia grabbed the person who came, stopped shouting, and gasped for breath, "I'm so happy to see you!" She had never felt so close to Chen Ying before.

"What's that sound?" After Ningxia stopped shouting, Chen Ying also heard the buzzing sound coming from the room, and her expression changed drastically.

Ningxia shook his head in fear.

The two of them were a bit bolder, and they went back into Su Yun's bedroom. Before they could even turn on the lights, Chen Ying screamed, "What's that?"

A faint, eerie green light flickered at the foot of the bed. As the buzzing sound intensified and then ceased, the green light flashed rhythmically.

"It sounds like a cell phone ringing!" Chen Ying said, frowning after listening for a while.

"A cell phone?" Ningxia realized that she had been too sensitive and hadn't even heard the phone vibrating or beeping.

"Su Yun's phone?" the two said at the same time, turning on the bedroom light.

The beeping continued loudly, as if determined not to give up until the call was answered.

Ningxia lifted the bed sheet, and a small, exquisite red cell phone on the floor made that extremely irritating sound. She looked at Chen Ying in surprise, hesitated for a moment, and finally picked it up. The caller ID showed that it was an unfamiliar landline number starting with "5".

"Whose call is that? How annoying!" Chen Ying couldn't help but get angry, having been scared half to death by this unfamiliar phone ringtone for nothing.

Suddenly, the piercing scream from the phone stopped, and the room fell silent. About five minutes later, Ningxia cautiously approached the bed and reached for the red phone she had tossed onto the bedside table.

"Watch out!" Chen Ying swallowed hard, reminding Ning Xia that she was worried the phone might make some strange noise again.

Ningxia composed herself, glanced at Su Yun's strange phone again, hesitated for a moment, and then reached out her hand.

I picked up the phone, and it had quietly turned off.

"The power is out!" Ningxia opened the bedside table, took out Su Yun's charger, and prepared to charge her phone.

"What are you doing?" Chen Ying rushed over and roughly snatched the charger from us. "Are you trying to scare us to death?"

Ningxia sighed and explained, "I think Su Yun's death is a bit strange. Don't you want to know why?"

Chen Ying glanced at Ning Xia, somewhat angry, and even regretting coming back with her: "Su Yun is dead, can't you stop making such a fuss?"

"I have a feeling that the phone call just now was from her boyfriend!" Ningxia voiced her intuition.

"How can you be so sure? Didn't you hear that scream just now? Did it sound like a man's voice? Even if it was him, why would he scream so scaryly?" Chen Ying looked at the strange phone in her hand, then suddenly threw it on the bed, afraid that it would scream again for no reason.

"Then let's call and ask!" Ningxia picked up the charger and plugged in her phone.

"Wait!" Chen Ying covered her ears. "Let me prepare!"

Ningxia found it somewhat amusing, but couldn't quite manage a laugh. She turned on her phone, glanced at the incoming call, paused for a moment, mustered her courage, and redialed.

A normal dial tone came through the receiver. Ningxia was a little nervous. After a while, a man's voice came through lazily.

"Hello? Who is it?"

Ningxia's palms suddenly became sweaty, and he stammered, "Excuse me... who... who just called this phone?"

The man's impatient voice came through the receiver again: "You've got the wrong person, no one called!"

"But...but just now..." Ningxia asked in confusion, unsure of what to say.

"Miss! Do you know what time it is? I have to go to work tomorrow!" After the man finished speaking, he hung up, leaving a "beep beep" sound.

"He's dead?" It seems Chen Ying wasn't really a coward; after listening from the other side of the bed, she asked in confusion.

Ningxia frowned, then looked at the missed call and the number she had dialed. Somewhat incredulous, she dialed that strange landline again.

As a result, a short "beep beep" sound came from the other end, obviously the man had taken the receiver away.

"I can't get through!" Ningxia said dejectedly.

"What do we do now?" Chen Ying looked around, still shaken.

"I'll take the phone back first and see if there are any messages!" Ningxia put the charger and phone into her backpack. "Let's go!"

The caller ID showed that the most frequent caller was a man named "Chairman Zhang," whom Ningxia also knew—the owner of the real estate company where Su Yun worked. Su Yun was a workaholic, so it was quite normal for her to call her boss often; there was nothing suspicious about it.

Next, Su Yun made many calls to a landline number starting with "7," without a name. Ningxia vaguely felt there was something wrong with this landline, but looking at the time, it was already 2 a.m., so she turned off her phone and slowly fell asleep...

After an unknown amount of time, Ningxia woke up feeling thirsty and short of breath. Once her eyes adjusted to the light in the room, she saw the faint shadows of the paulownia tree branches filtering through the curtains, projected onto the wall above the dressing table directly opposite her. The dark shadows of the tree branches swayed occasionally in the wind, like a complex silent shadow play playing out on the wall. And on the dressing table, the purplish-brown box had inexplicably opened, revealing a sunflower-shaped bronze mirror with an eerie yellow-green glow, like a living eye, silently watching her!

Ningxia exhaled a puff of white mist, the bone-chilling cold lowering the room temperature to freezing. She broke out in a cold sweat, gasping for breath, frozen in place, staring intently at the bronze mirror directly in front of her. After about twenty minutes, her palms soaked with sweat, Ningxia suddenly sat up, pulled back the covers, and rushed to the dressing table! As Ningxia approached, the bronze mirror reflected a distorted face. Holding her breath, Ningxia abruptly reached out and slammed the mirror down, closing the dressing table behind her.

The instant Ningxia placed the bronze mirror into the box, she suddenly felt a blinding red light shoot into her eyes from the mirror's surface. After the box was closed, the image left by the red light on her pupils clearly flashed into her vision—the brief pause in her brain after receiving the information. A line of blood-red, unidentified vertical characters appeared in Ningxia's field of vision! Startled, and hesitant for a moment, she reopened the box. The bronze mirror, through its distorted surface, still reflected everything in the room and Ningxia's face; nothing seemed amiss.

But the line of blood-red text remained clearly imprinted in her mind. Ningxia fiddled with the bronze mirror and its empty compartments a few more times, but to no avail. She closed the dressing case again. Strangely, the line of blood-red text never appeared again. Ningxia quickly put the dressing case into the drawer of the dressing table. When she was sure that the possibility of the dressing case reappearing was almost zero, Ningxia jumped into bed, pulled the covers over her head, and tried to fall asleep as quickly as possible.

The more she wanted to sleep, the less she could. After about half an hour, Ningxia, feeling suffocated, threw back the covers. Her first instinct was to look at the dressing table directly in front of her. Thankfully, Fang Lian hadn't run out. She glanced at the digital clock on the bedside table; its fluorescent hands pointed to 4:30, emitting a faint green glow. She now realized that this green glow was an extremely unpleasant color. She reached out and placed the clock face down, and the faint green glow immediately disappeared. Just as she was about to lie down, a faint sliver of dark red light shone from the direction of the dressing table. She sat up abruptly, staring incredulously ahead.

Beneath the dressing table, a faint red light flickered intermittently, seeping through the gaps in the dressing table drawer!

Ningxia, panting, turned on the bedside lamp, and the red light vanished instantly. Turning the lamp off, the eerie red light flickered again. She turned the lamp back on, got out of bed, and pulled open the dressing table drawer. The dressing case lay quietly inside, nothing amiss, the lid still securely closed. Opening the lid, she found the bronze mirror propped up. After carefully examining it, Ningxia turned the lamp off again. Instantly, the room plunged into darkness, a faint blood-red light emanating from the back of the mirror. She lifted the dressing case above her head and looked at the back of the mirror. A line of vertical characters emitted a blood-red light in the darkness, like modern fluorescent light, only the color was a dark, deathly crimson. It seemed this strange, unknown script had been engraved on the back of the bronze mirror by its maker in some strange way, perhaps concealing some secret.

The previous fear lessened considerably, and Ningxia became very curious. She quickly found paper and pen, and although she couldn't understand the strange characters, she carefully traced them. After finishing, she put away the box, picked up the paper and pen, and went to her parents' former study to search for the origin of similar strange characters. The characters were arranged vertically, crooked and twisted, making it impossible to tell what kind of script they were from; they looked somewhat like Sanskrit from India.

Ningxia's parents were both history professors at a university. Their study contained a large collection of books on ancient writing. She casually glanced through them and found over thirty books on the subject. She took them all out and laid them on the wooden floor of the study, examining them one by one. But even as dawn broke, Ningxia couldn't find the source of the strange script. She yawned, feeling utterly exhausted. It was the weekend, so she didn't have to rush to work. After a quick tidying up, she collapsed onto the bed and fell asleep almost immediately.

Ningxia was overjoyed and quickly scanned the text and sent it to the other party's email address.

After a while, "Millennial Spirit" replied that he had never seen these strange characters before and needed to ask his teacher. He said he would contact Ningxia as soon as he had any news and left his phone number and address. Ningxia left his phone number with him and went offline. He called Chen Ying, but her phone was off.

She took out Su Yun's phone, hesitated for a moment, and then dialed the landline number that started with "7".

The call connected, and soft music played from the other end. A sweet female voice called out, "Gu Tan Club! Ms. Su! Hello!"

Ningxia was surprised; the other person clearly mistook her for Su Yun. She paused and said, "Hello! I'd like to ask, how did you know who I am?"

A sweet, feminine voice announced, "We have caller ID for all our members here, and your number is registered to Ms. Su Yun!"

Suddenly realizing what was happening, Ningxia thought for a moment and then said, "Miss! I'm not Su Yun, I'm a good friend of hers. Su Yun isn't in this city right now. I... I also want to join your organization, but I'd like to... learn about your organization first. Would that be convenient?" She hastily made up a clumsy lie, stammering nervously.

The sweet female voice paused for a moment, then whispered the situation to the person next to her, perhaps seeking instructions, before saying to Ningxia, "Okay! You can come over, but please bring your ID!"

Ningxia happily replied, "Great! Great! Where is your club located?"

A sweet female voice told Ningxia the address of the club. Ningxia was surprised. It was a villa area where the city's wealthy people gathered. The people living there were all rich and powerful. How could Su Yun be a member there? She decided to go there first thing tomorrow morning. The club was located in a very beautiful area on the outskirts of the city. It would take more than two hours by bus.

The next day, Ningxia got up early and tried to contact Chen Ying again, but her phone was still off. So she took a bus alone and headed straight for the "Gutan Club". The villa area was clearly visible in front of the bus stop. She got off the bus and walked there, passing by several famous foreign brands, all of which were luxury cars worth over 600,000 to 700,000 yuan.

"Gu Tan Club" seemed to be quite famous in the area, and Ningxia easily found out its exact location. It was an ancient building in the style of the Ming Dynasty, its magnificent grandeur no less than that of an ancient imperial palace. Ningxia stood dumbfounded before this resplendent building, almost afraid to step through the gate. At the entrance, four doormen dressed as ancient palace guards stared coldly at her, so she had no choice but to steel herself and walk up the steps.

After being stopped by the expressionless doorman, Ningxia explained her purpose. One of the doormen made a phone call, and a moment later, a beautiful woman with a slender figure, wearing an exquisite cheongsam, walked over.

"Hello! I'm Qiuyue, the manager of the club!" The beautiful woman politely introduced herself with a typical business smile, giving the name of an ancient woman.

Ningxia replied politely, "I'm Su Yun's friend! This is my ID card!"

Qiu Yue glanced at Ningxia's ID card and nodded: "Miss Ningxia! Please come with me!"

Following Qiuyue into the clubhouse, Ningxia found herself in a large courtyard at the center. The courtyard featured flowing streams, artificial hills, and ponds, adorned with clusters of various precious flowers. Several long corridors with white walls and gray tiles led from the center in different directions, eventually connecting to various three-story buildings with different rooms. Each three-story room had its own independent vermilion gate, above which hung a plaque with poetic names like "Qingzhulin" (Bamboo Grove), "Xuemeiyuan" (Snow Plum Garden), and "Qiujupu" (Chrysanthemum Garden), all contributing to the distinctly Jiangnan water town style. Ningxia felt like a country bumpkin entering a grand garden, experiencing a sense of dizziness. The facilities here were breathtakingly luxurious. She followed Qiuyue across a vermilion wooden bridge, through a clear, emerald-green pond, and into a long corridor painted with landscape ink paintings. She looked up at the richly decorated coffered ceiling of the corridor and arrived at a room on the first floor of a south-facing room. The furniture in the room is all made of mahogany, and all the decorations are antique replicas. Only the several computers on the mahogany square table show the modernity of the place.

Although Qiuyue gave the impression of being very polite, Ningxia always felt that she was secretly assessing her own appearance and self-worth.

Seeing that Ningxia seemed a little nervous, Qiuyue continued with a smile, "The membership price for Gutan Club is 35,000 RMB. I wonder if Miss Su Yun told you that?"

"What?!" Ningxia exclaimed in surprise, "Thirty-five thousand yuan!"

Qiu Yue had clearly anticipated Ningxia's reaction, but still smiled and said, "It's alright if you don't become a member. We can also accommodate individual customers, but the minimum spend for an individual customer is three thousand yuan!"

Ningxia, slightly breathless, looked at Qiuyue's mocking expression and her face darkened: "I came here to inquire about Su Yun!"

"Isn't Miss Su Yun your friend?" Qiu Yue asked casually.

"She's already passed away!" Ningxia lowered her eyelids and uttered a sentence that shocked Qiuyue.

Ningxia continued, "I'd like to see if there's anything she left here. If it's convenient, I'd like to take a look! Also, I'd like to know who helped Su Yun register as a member here. Could you tell me?"

"I'm sorry! Without the guest's permission, we cannot hand over members' personal belongings to others! Moreover, we cannot disclose guests' information at will!" Qiu Yue replied coldly, starting to look through the documents on the table, ignoring Ning Xia.

Being flatly rejected was infuriating, but Ningxia remained calm and turned to leave. Unexpectedly, she bumped into someone at the door, and the pent-up anger flared up instantly. She shouted, "What are you doing! What are you doing!"

The newcomer was a well-dressed, handsome man in his thirties. He quickly apologized to Ningxia, "Miss! I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry!"

Ningxia glared angrily at the man in the suit, but seeing his excellent attitude, she ignored him, glared at him, and prepared to leave.

"President Lin!" A bright smile immediately appeared on Qiu Yue's face.

"General Manager?" Ningxia was taken aback, then immediately turned to General Manager Lin and said, "General Manager Lin! Can I discuss something with you?"

"President Lin! This young lady wants to know Ms. Su Yun's personal information! I've already explained it to her!" Qiu Yue hurriedly interrupted Ning Xia.

Ningxia looked coldly at Qiuyue and said to the handsome man before her, "Is this how your establishment treats its guests? Although I am not qualified to be a guest of your establishment, there is no need to be in such a hurry to kick me out, is there?"

Mr. Lin looked somewhat embarrassed, smiled apologetically at Ningxia, and said to Qiuyue, "Qiuyue, I'll handle this!" Qiuyue looked awkward and left the office without saying a word. Mr. Lin politely said, "Miss! Hello! I am Lin Wei, the general manager of Gu Tan Club! Is there anything I can help you with?" Ningxia saw that Lin Wei seemed much more capable, so she explained Su Yun's situation.

"Miss Su Yun fell to her death?" Lin Wei looked on with unimaginable astonishment. Ning Xia nodded sadly and then repeated the two requests she had made to Qiu Yue earlier.

Lin Wei frowned, pondered for a moment, and said to Ning Xia, "I'm sorry, Miss Ning, we really cannot disclose the information of the customer who helped Miss Su Yun apply for the membership card." He paused, then continued, "However, we can return Miss Su Yun's personal belongings to you! As for the unused prepayment Miss Su Yun made at our club, I would like to ask Miss Su Yun's parents to come in person, and we will refund it in full!"

Ningxia was somewhat disappointed that she couldn't get information about Su Yun's mysterious boyfriend, but fortunately, she could get Su Yun's belongings, so she had no choice but to agree.

To express his apology, Lin Wei personally led Ningxia to a three-story villa called "Youlanzhai" on the north side. They walked through the central courtyard and went straight up to the third floor. In front of the door in the center of the third floor, he opened the door.

Everything in "Youlan Zhai" exudes a strong Ming Dynasty style. If it weren't for Lin Wei, dressed in a modern suit, leading the way, Ningxia would have truly thought she had traveled back to ancient times. From the various precious flowers, mainly orchids, planted in the courtyard, to the ancient paintings hanging on the walls of the rooms, at least half of every item here is a genuine antique, and the other half is a reproduction by a famous artist. No wonder the membership fee is so expensive.

Lin Wei was used to Ningxia's reaction; everyone who entered the "Gutan Club" for the first time had the same expression. He smiled slightly and patiently waited for Ningxia to finish her tour. When Ningxia came to her senses, she felt a little embarrassed and quickly followed him into the largest room on the third floor.